Fed rate policy unintentionally pressures emerging economies

Wednesday, 15 August 2018WASHINGTON (AP) — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is blaming the United States for Turkey's financial crisis, ignoring homegrown problems like high debts, raging inflation and his own erratic policies. Yet one of the threats facing Turkey and other emerging-market countries really is made-in-America: By ratcheting up U.S. interest rates, the Federal Reserve has — unintentionally — led investors to pull money out of emerging markets like Turkey, strengthened the dollar's value and made it harder for foreign companies to repay their dollar-denominated debts. The resulting flight of capital into safer and higher-yielding U.S. investments has sent many emerging-market currencies tumbling.

According to Reuters, the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady after their latest meeting on monetary policy. At the end of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting, policymakers at the Fed..

According to a report by Reuters, despite criticism from US President Donald Trump, Federal Reserve policymakers remain generally united on the need to continue raising borrowing costs. On Wednesday,..